Monday, January 17, 2005

Pretend

The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to
achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the
beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to
the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must
be ready to turn sharply from our present ways....We are confronted
with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and
history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still
the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected
with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain
at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her
passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached
bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the
pathetic words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that
faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger
writes, and having writ moves on..." We still have a choice today;
nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation.

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for
peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world
that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged
down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who
possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength
without sight.

Amen. I wish BushCo and its apologists didn't pretend that MLK's words have no relevance today.

ntodd

PS--King's 1967 "Beyond Vietnam" speech made him quite unpopular with J Edgar Hoover and the NAACP, amongst others. Speaking truth to power often rubs people the wrong way, it seems.

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» Martin Luther King Day from A Tiny Revolution
Bob Harris beat me to just about everything I was going to say about Martin Luther King. It's no accident that everyone talks about King's "I Have A Dream" speech, while throwing "Beyond Vietnam" (also known as "A Time to... [Read More]